Okay, call me an addict. First, there was chocolate (thanks, mom!), then, my “Crackberry“, now Facebook. What can I say, I get obsessions. Art is an obsession, no harm in that, right?
One of the features on Facebook I’ve decided to try for my “virtual open studio” (ie, cleaning out my studio sale) is “Facebook Flyers”. It’s a neat idea. Remembering that Facebook is built around the idea of friends, virtual neighborhoods and so on: at home, how would you advertise a garage sale? Sure, start with Craig’s List…but you’d post fliers, right? That’s the idea with Facebook flyers. You can post advertisements that feature your sale, and most important: target them to networks, be it neighborhoods or schools.
So, I’ve devised a little test. I’ve taken one of my paintings from my “virtual open studios” and targeted it using Facebook Flyers. The one I selected was my painting of the USS Hornet for the “Jewel by the Bay” paint out this past summer. So now the question is, where do I target? You can target by gender, age group, neighborhood and school. There’s Alameda…yes, I could target delivery of the flyers to people that live in Alameda where the USS Hornet is docked. But I realized there is a school of alumni that may be most interested, the US Naval Academy!
So, there it is. My Facebook Flyer, targeted for delivery (5,000 flyer ads for $10) delivered to only current students and alumni of the US Naval Academy.
I’ll let you know how it goes. To learn more about Facebook Flyers, check out Charlene Li’s Blog, “Groundswell”.
Hi Ed,
This sounds interesting. You picked a good target audience.
Charlene said she heard from a Nigerian in London .. that is a flag. Beware of those money scams. 🙂 Guess you won’t get any from the Navy guys/gals.
Jo
Hi Ed. Get marketing idea! I tried to view the video but got an error message- don’t know if its a bad link or me- just wanted to let you know.
Wow, Ed. What a good idea! I hope you will post a follow up and let us know what kind of response you received. I’ve just started dipping my toe into the social networking milieu. My only trouble is that once I start investigating, I fall into a time warp, only to emerge without my bearings some time later! LOL.
I saw your flyer on Facebook and bought two landscape paintings. I will buy more if they look as good in real life as they do on the site. 😉
Thanks, Johnnie. This is exciting, I had no idea if my ads were working or not. I will certainly refund your money if you’re not happy. Cheers!